Many different types of electrical equipment are being made with electronic surface mount components such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,416 to Okui et at. These components are delivered to users attached to a strip like tape that is spirally wrapped around the hub of a reel that traditionally has a diameter of seven or twelve inches. Computer controlled machines are used to position such surface mount components on printed circuit boards without human handling of the components. It is not unusual to use hundreds of resistors, capacitors, inductors or other electrical components of different kinds and sizes by a single machine used in making a printed circuit board of a particular design. Most of the different components that are needed for a particular printed circuit board are brought to the positioning machine on a reel.
The number of reels remaining in inventory must be accurately determined and the inventory maintained at an appropriate level to prevent interruptions in the operation of the production line. A current practice is to store reels side by side on racks or tables. Monitoring the inventory on hand is a critical and a labor intensive process because the surface mount components cannot be visually identified except through use of bar codes that are customarily attached to the reels. In the event of an incident causing the reels to get mixed up, a major effort can be required to properly reposition the reels in inventory.